Crime and Punishment - Suffering, Death and Resurrection Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote the novel Crime and Punishment during a turbulent period in Russian history. Yet his work will speak to any age. Dostoevsky wrote to warn against what he saw as the negative effects of the tendency towards nihilism and rational selfishness. He pursues this goal by using the themes of suffering, resurrection and death: all these currents running through a surprisingly benevolent universe. If Marx, Dostoevsky's Russian companion, was right in stating that religion is the opium of the people, then suffering is the proverbial needle that injects it into a person. Suffering is the dominant theme of this work. It twists and turns in so many aspects of the story that any other classification simply wouldn't do it justice. Immediately after Raskolnikov's crime, he begins to suffer. Lizaveta's involuntary death is a severe blow to her conscience. Dostoevsky conveys his message: an unbridled act will lead to a flood of suffering. A theory is not a protection against...